As is known to those skilled in the art, the styling of women's hair has found expression in many and varied forms. One of the oldest and most fundamental involves the utilization of braiding to form long and diffuse hair into a compact elongated form. However, braids typically involve at least three principal strands, and since braids generally are formed to align with the center of the back of the head, braiding hair by the person herself has been difficult without assistance from another party. Moreover, it is desirable in many instances to divide the hair into more than three principal strands so as to present a more pleasing appearance, thus complicating the braiding procedure.
It has been found that the use of certain devices has substantially simplified the styling of hair. Thus, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,723 granted to Denie Schach on Apr. 19, 1995, there is disclosed an auxiliary styling device which simplifies the styling of hair into desired shapes such as buns, ponytails, French knots, braids, cascades and other shapes. Another prior proposal is that set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,690 granted to Jurgis Sapkus Jan. 25, 1983. However, the proposals of that patent appear to be limited to three principal strands of hair and require the use of moving parts actuated by a pivotal trigger, thus being complex. Even practical and effective, however, as such known auxiliary styling devices may have been, there has continued to be a need for a simple passive device to facilitate the braiding of three or more strands of one's own long hair.